Day 62 1st squirrel!!!

Ducked out around 11, and headed to "the dumpster." Got her beeped up, she took a nice perch high in a tree, and I began beating around the brush. This is a relatively new field, and I was heading toward the back section that we hadn't flown yet, with hopes of kicking up a bunny or two. The wetness was keeping them in tight though, and we only kicked up one rabbit in the first 15 or 20 minutes. She chased it hard, but it made it into a patch of thick vines, which she managed to get VERY tangled up in. Kicked around for another 15 or 20 minutes with no luck, before I arrived at a really large briar patch which looked like it may hold a bunny or two. Dee Dee had been ignoring me for a minute or two, and looking pretty intently in the direction of a couple trees, but since I had just finished kicking around all the brush in that area, I decided it was time for her to move on. I call her over to me at the briar patch, and after a reluctant moment or two, she took off in my direction. About half way to me, she veers off toward the trees, and starts pumping really hard. It looked like a rabbit flight to me, but when she crashed the brush at the base of the tree, she was a few feet off the ground. I walk over to her, and am about to hop her to the fist, when I see the squirrel twist toward the top of the tree. This was a pretty small tree in the middle of a field, with the only one nearby being a pretty large cedar. She hops to the ground, and starts walking toward an open spot, so I'm thinkin she is about to fly up to the cedar, and I'm gonna move this squirrel. I start hitting the tree, and she flies up to the top of the tree, and I guess this was just a little too much for the squirrel....it bailed out of the middle, and hit the ground running within beating stick length of me. I try to score one for me, but just barely miss with my beating stick, and then the squirrel does a crazy side step, and dodges the feet of Dee, as she slams into the ground next to it. Dee then decides the best course of action is to try and chase it down on foot, so she takes off at break neak speed (smile), and wadles after the squirrel. SOMEHOW, the squirrel out ran her, and made it safely into the branchs of the cedar tree, so I hop her to the fist for a tib bit, and then get her to fly up to the top of the cedar. I push the lowar branchs of the cedar to the sides, and I crawl inside the tree, to find a HUGE wood rat nest surounding the trunk, on the first level of branchs. I start poking around in that for a while, knowing it's the only possible place it could have gone, but didn't manage to move it. Dee Dee is peering really hard down the tree, so I go to the other side of the trunk, and start poking that section. Dee then hops into the cedar along the top row of branchs, and starts looking around really hard. About that time, i see the squirrel coming back toward the nest, and I start beating around above it. This turns the squirrel, and he starts hauling up the tree. She watchs it till it gets pretty much underneith her, before she drops off the branch, twists once, and snatchs it off the trunk!!!!! She fans out, and stops right there in the top of the tree. She is held up by her wings, and immediately starts switching her feet back and forth on it's head, with the body dangling in thin air. I drop my beating stick as soon as I see her drop, and am already part way up the tree before she snatchs it. I shoot the rest of the way up to them, and grab the squirrel's body, and quickly put "the squeeze" to it. Once I'm satisfied that the squirrel was gone, I break the branchs that she is hung up on, and down climbing the tree, bird in tow. I finally make it to the ground, and set them out in an open spot to calm down. She takes an exceptionally long time (which can be expected), but eventually starts trying to pluck the head. Produce the lure, and we have a nice trade off to part of a bunny leg, and then i hop her to the fist for both front legs, and the organs. I'm pretty darn psyched! The overall session was good. For one, she eventually got the squirrel secured firmly in her grasp, with a back tallon going straight through the jaw into the head, thus sealing its mouth and preventing a bite. Also, because of the situation she caught this squirrel in, she directly associated me with keeping the squirrel moving, the hunt in general, and the eventual kill. That is hard to accomplish with squirrel hawking from what i've been told, and I'm pleased that I had I was able to do that with the first one. Swung by home to change cloths, and I get Lindz to snap off some victory photos. Good session!